Enhancing Growth in New Enterprise Programme Business Plan Competition for Ghanians.

Application Deadline: 18th August 2014

The Enhancing Growth in New Enterprise programme (ENGINE), a national Business Plan Competition and Entrepreneurship Development Program.

ENGINE is a multiyear project implemented by TechnoServe with funding from the UK Government through the Department for International Development (DFID) that seeks to equip Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) with the skills and resources to improve their business plans and internal operations, while creating a thriving community of entrepreneurs through the increase of access to business development services and to financing.

The program seeks to achieve its objectives through the following components:

Business Plan Competition (BPC):

TechnoServe will launch a business plan competition whereby applicants will be asked to submit 5-page concept papers and undertake a psychometric test to determine entrepreneurial capacity.
A 4-day intensive training course will then be administered to the best applicants to enable them submit a 15-20 page business plan.
Finalists will be selected amongst those who received the 4-day training and will receive an additional 8 hours of mentorship to finalize their business plans.

Entrepreneur Aftercare:

Following the selection of the business plan competition winners, all entrepreneurs (grant and non-grant winners) who presented their business plans to the panel of judges will receive the provision of mentoring, networking and other business development services over the course of one year.

Winners and finalists of ENGINE will be given awards that include seed capital, business development services, opportunities to present to private investors and links to financial institutions and investment capital.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible to participate in the ENGINE Business Plan Competition a person must meet all of the following criteria:

Be a Ghanaian citizen
Be 20 years of age or older at the time of submitting the application
Propose an expansion on an existing business or a new business that is or will be based in Ghana
Have no more than 50 employees (existing businesses)
Propose a business expansion or concept that will realistically create at least 5 new jobs by the end of the second year of business operations, and will have a minimum investment base of GH¢50,000 and annual sales of GH¢100,000 by the end of the third year of business operations
Propose an expansion or a new business in any sector or industry (except Imports to Sell)
A firm commitment to submit basic financial data for a period of 3 years following participation in the program, as well as submitting financial data during the issuance of the grant
Ideas can be submitted by individuals or by a group. If an idea is submitted by a group, all group members must meet all of the above stated criteria
Each idea may be submitted only once
Only one person per application may participate in training sessions, events, consultant meetings and any other aspect of the competition. The same person from any one business team must attend the entire programme from beginning to end. The only exceptions that may be made will be by consultants, who may agree in advance to meet with additional members of a management team
No employee or associate of the employee (spouse, parent, cousin, nephew, niece, or child) of any of the organizations associated with the competition is permitted to participate
All businesses proposed must be profit seeking, self-sustaining businesses. No non-profit entities will be accepted
The organizers are not responsible for any other costs (i.e. lodging, food, further transportation) that a participant may incur in order to attend any of the competition events

Applicants will be asked to identify which industry categories best describes their businesses or business concepts:

Agribusiness and Processing {including Greenfield Operations}
Energy
Services {including but not limited to Media, Hospitality and Tourism}
Technology/ Communications
Light Manufacturing
Private Sector Solutions to Water, Health or Education
Other (Applicants will need to specify what sector if it does not fall into the provided categories)

A complete application must include all of the following:

Hard copy of signed Participation Agreement
Complete Application Form (typed)
Business Concept Statement (maximum 5 pages, double-spaced, typed, minimum font of 12) – business concepts that do not respect this length limitation will not be reviewed and will be automatically excluded from the competition

Awards

Winners will receive a combination of seed capital and aftercare (business development services).
The programme will also facilitate participants to access loan or investment capital from financial institutions or investors.
Several finalists will also win aftercare awards (business development services). At least US$ 720,000 (GBP450,000) in seed capital and aftercare will be awarded across the winners and finalists

Winner Obligations

The winners will sign a contract in which they bind themselves to invest the seed capital (cash) awarded directly into the project described in their submitted business plans.
Winners of ENGINE will be expected to participate in a variety of media events after the conclusion of the competition.
All winners are subject to an ENGINE audit for the first three years of the life of the business or the expansion.
Additionally, all winners must present quarterly financial reports to the ENGINE implementing agency (TechnoServe) for verification.

For More Information:

Apply Now for the Enhancing Growth in New Enterprise Programme

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Enhancing Growth in New Enterprise programme